The Oklahoma State Legislature passed a bill in April stating, beginning Nov. 1, physicians will be required to provide the state government with specific information on each abortion they perform.
According to an article on the Tulsa World’s Web site, House Bill 1595 will require physicians to report: the woman’s age, marital status, education level, number of previous pregnancies, reason for the abortion, method of abortion and payment, cost of the abortion, type of medical health insurance, the nature of her relationship with the father and whether or not an ultrasound was given before the abortion was performed.
The information will also be posted on a state government Web site.
The information will help lawmakers know how many abortions are being performed in the state so they can possibly adjust policies and reduce the number of abortions in Oklahoma, Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa, stated in a press release found on the Oklahoma House of Representative’s Web site.
We think this bill is completely unnecessary and will create an atmosphere of big brother government.
Women should not be required to provide the government with this type of information. It could make women feel uncomfortable and possibly alter their decision to abort.
Although a physician is not required to provide the woman’s name, it might not be hard for someone in a small community, which exist all over Oklahoma, to figure out who has or has not had an abortion.
We also feel this law is an attempt to push the state legislature’s political agenda onto the women of Oklahoma.
Physicians are not required to provide the state government with specific information on other medical procedures, so why should this one be different?
There will no doubt be women who are alienated by this kind of interference into their medical and personal lives and will go out of their way and drive out of state to have the procedure.
Laws aren’t typically made for conducting research. But if this kind of research truly needs to be conducted in Oklahoma, researchers and sociologists should provide women with voluntary surveys instead of the government requiring their personal information.
We can usually understand the reasoning behind a law, but we feel this law is completely unnecessary, intrusive and is being used as a political tool to limit women’s options.
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JJanowiak 2 years, 7 months ago
The men who introduced this legislation are sexist, chauvinist pigs acting like concerned patriarchs. Sometimes I hate the backwardness of our state because they truly are representing a sizable constituency. The state courts are going to step in eventually, and if they get behind this sheer insanity the federal government is going to dictate to Oklahoma what is and is not civilized in the 21st century.
cowd3769 2 years, 7 months ago
Abortion limits unborn women's "options."
TexasOx 2 years, 7 months ago
"It could make women feel uncomfortable and possibly alter their decision to abort."
Is that a bad thing? Pro-choice means you made the choice to engage in sexual activity. The well know result of that activity is pregnancy. The choice has already been made. There are some things more important than self. The lives of the innocent are one.